The purpose of this forum is to allow people to showcase their tanks, and allow other uses to ask questions on equipment, livestock, methodology etc. Specifically for Diverse Tanks (Cubes, Squares, Triangular) (Fish Only with Live Rock, Predator Tanks, Temperate Tanks) (non-photosynthetic tanks, Marine Plant/Algae Tanks, Greenhouse Tanks)

The trip to Brisbane was fabulous! It rained most all Thursday (at Sea World) and I got to swim with dolphins. Then it rained a little more on Friday while we were at Wet and Wild. Holy cow no one told me you had to carry tubes up so many stairs, they need elevators. I'm so outta shape.

We were able to swing by Reef Secrets to see Darren and Matt on Friday right before close, lucky they didn't throw us out, and we happily looked at all the stock and reserved some for Sunday pick up.Saturday we headed up bright and early to Pet City in Brisbane, and all the other 10 or so stores we had on the list. PET CITY IS OUR FAVORITE STORE IN BRISBANE! They are FABulous! They had alot of really nice corals, the display was breathtaking. Just breathtaking. Corals gone mad with growth, and color, fish fat and happy. I just wanted to take the whole thing home in my carry on! Matt and Gavin are, so helpful. I really appreciated visiting the store and wish we had time to explore the whole place, but we stayed and focused mostly on the marine section. They were able to help me get my favorite new cleaning toy for the tank a fusion 20" long aquarium scraper, that is like magic, and I really love it! I brought home an oblique lined dottyback from there I'd never seen before, also known as a Mccullochi dottyback. It's bright and was really lively in the tank. I figured it would work well to hold his own against the current McCulloch's clowns in the tank. He's a beauty, but he's always hiding under rockwork. Maybe the clowns are meaner then I thought.

I was also able to get some really sizable fresh frags from a yellow monti with baby pink polyps.

Next we headed on to some pretty average aquarium shops, and didn't deem any of them worthy of bringing anything back to Sydney with us. I will mention the sales people of one Clayfield Aquarium were extremely rude, unhelpful, and after being treated so badly we scurried out, never buying from them and making a note to warn others of there terrible attitude. That allowed us more time to spend at Atlas Aquarium! Loved it will go back. I scored some freeze dried cyclopeeze which is normally sold in huge canisters as they had broken one up and sold smaller portions of it. Happy times. I also found this beautiful wrasse which had been happily in there tanks and on frozen for a few weeks.

I believe the very helpful guy's name was Chris. I also added a new acan (which I realized I don't have a photo of, how embarassing , I'll have to remember to take some when I get home) and a small blue zoa frag (again no photo. Def photo update tonight) We enjoyed talking with him, he assured us if we'd like they could arrange shipping. He even listened to us complain about how terrible Clayfield was. Nice guy, and very helpful! A++ for this one!

We visited more average and a few below average shops. Since we were almost finished for the day we went back to Pet City to avoid traveling to Brisbane on Sunday again as we were staying on the gold coast. We packaged our fish/corals and brought them along to the last few stores on the way back down to the gold coast. Last stop for the day was Nielsen's Marine Mates. DID NOT LET US DOWN! Another great one, and proved to be the most expensive for me. I brought back a goldish clam, a blood shrimp, a rock of blue zoas, and a special SPS, which was getting a bit stung by a nearby milli. Haven't been able to identify the 2nd coral growing on it though. That one went into the main cube though not this one.

Sunday we visited all the stores in the gold coast we could, and went back to Reef Secrets. REEF SECRETS IS OUR FAVORITE AQUARIUM STORE ON THE GOLD COAST! Hot guys, hot display, it was a brilliant day and everything got rebagged for the flight home. We ended up bringing back 3 boxes completely crammed full of fish, corals, and inverts. Security looked at us a bit odd.

I was able to secure a new chiller for this tank, and since I would need to run an external pump for this. I decided to do it BIG. I have plans to run a single 10k rated pump for the chiller, 2 reactors, return, and a closed loop system. I've always wanted a more powerful return to use a nice loc line spraybar to keep powerheads out of the tank, and now I shall. I've designed for 3 spraybars, to allow strong flow, but very spread out for through coverage, and I will be adding a SWCD for random wave action. One spraybar will cover the entire back of the tank as return from the chiller, one from the left covering the entire topline there, and one from the right set up the same way, through the SWCD covering the entire tank with flow from all over and random directions. My main concern is the pump being too strong, so I have designed the manifold to have an 'extra' valve which will be directly output to the return chamber in the back of the tank. Since it's only partially build I only have some photos of the pvc bits put together for visual.

It will be attached to the side of the stand, and plumbing run under the display and up the back area of the tank into there respectable devices. In which order I haven't decided yet. I still need to purchase a few odd bits and ends, and some tubing. I would like to use flexible pvc, or spa-flex, and will have to find some in 1", or 25mm size, that will fit into pvc fittings. I need 2 unions to attach to the pump and some flexible tubing that I can use with metal hose clams to attach to the SWCD, which the flexible pvc, or spa-flex might fit the bill for, but uncertain until I get the pump and SWCD. I also need a few screw on barb fittings in 1" size. Then I'll need all the metal clamps to be used for external use under the tank. I've ordered 2 more loc-line spraybars and fittings so those will arrive from the US whenever they get here, week or two, and I'll order the pump and SWCD then as well. Either a much greatness to come, or a big flood in the bedroom! Keep tuned in! Can't wait to test it all out!

Epic post! And the only thing I'll add is that between the two of us, there were technically 4 boxes of fishy-carryon-goodness I think you took 3 of them home though!

Oh yeah, and that dotty back really is more beautiful in real life

------------------------------------------------In maths, the product of a positive and negative equals a negative and two negatives equal a positive BUT two positives can't equal a negative. Yeah, Right.---Tricia

The dotty is coming about a little more now! Oh maybe there were 4 boxes, I know Tricia had to buy a carry on bag because we ran outta room to carry things.

Well the All-In-One manifold for the All-In-One tank is coming along marvelously. I'm expecting the final pieces for this next week. I've decided to upgrade the pump to a Waveline DC-10000k. I liked the soft start, feeding options, and variable speeds. I plan to hold onto this pump for the rest of it's life I know I can use this for a large tank somewhere down the line! This way I know even if I have too much flow at 10,000 I can run it at 6,000 or whatever.

I've got almost all the parts together, and leak tested the manifold. I am using barbed adapters in 1/2" for the reactors and chiller, and then barbed adaptors in 1" for the SCWD, and the overflow 5th manifold. I've found a way to zip tie it to the stand itself on the side, and keep it all relatively tidy. I've also almost completely finished the closed loop left and right sides that will go over the rim of the tank near the back.

That last photo has the right side which is completed of the closed loop, but without the long loc-line spraybar which should arrive next week. I order all my loc-line from the US from a company that ships to Aus for actual shipping price, so really cheap. So if anyone needs loc-line anything, lmk I'm happy to refer you to that company. Totally psyched about seeing this project underway! The two upside down U's are intake with a cap to fill the entire plumbing and chiller, etc, and the return 'extra' both which will be placed into the return chamber of the tank.

It is done, however looks like the loc-line company accidently sent my loc-line to the wrong address so they are working on resending that out to me. Another minor snag is the nice waveline pump I received did not come with all the right amount of barbed fittings, so those are being sent out to me. It's the only thing keeping me from pushing water thorough the new system.

Waveline DC -10,000This pump is so small for all the power it is supposed to pack. Can't wait to test it out, and enjoy the adjustable speeds, and feeding mode feature on it.

SWCD "Squid" with threaded bits, and union ends added on.

This is the closed loop portion all put together, and ready to be placed under the tank.

Under the tank, and ready.

View inside the tank, you can see the left and right bits that will have spraybars once they arrive, but it can be used without them and function fine. Water alternates from left to right making a wave motion and random flow. The spraybar in the back will be the return from the chiller. The internal black pump will be completely removed as it will not be needed, it's just still there, since it's still doing it's thing.

It will be on this week, once the barbed fitting for the pump arrives. Hope there are no leaks, everything was glued strongly, and portions were all leak tested, I only hope my clamps and fittings for the flexible hoses are good too.

Im waiting for my Waveline Dc 10000 too,, should be here by the end of the week,, im thinking of doing a closed loop system too from the top of the tank with loclines and all,,, just might need a bigger pump than the 10000,,, Hope it will be fine..

The waveline pump is pretty awesome, I have to admit, on it's lowest setting, it's so quiet you can't tell it's on. It's quieter then the chiller. The soft start is a blessing as well. I am however having lovely leaking problems all over the place. . The pump is also pulling alot of air, so I've glued the intake to it, as it was originally just pushed in really tight, but this doesn't seem to be enough. I'll test the glue'd pieces tonight when I get home, and hope it's all functional before a weekend away. Otherwise, we're not going away.

The main leak is because I didn't use pvc cutters to cut the hose, and the tubing isn't flush to the union bushing. I'll swing by Bunnings today to pick up a few metal clamps to fix that up. The other leaks aren't going to be very easy to fix, because about 2 or 3 of the valves on the manifold are BA-RELY leaking, and to take them off and put more pvc tape on them would leak out the water currently in the lines all over the place.

Honestly I might just put a plastic container underneath and deal with it (at least for the weekend), the leaks are all really slow and not detrimental to the water in the system. One of the tubing to one of the reactors needs to be replaced as it was cut to short, and I know that isn't going to be easy to take the tube off the barb, but it's something that can be worked on another day.

I haven't been able to test out the SWCD very well yet because I had to fix a few leaks with it as well. I just don't tighten things enough. . Because there's air that keeps coming into the lines, if I open that valve something else doesn't work, it's a big pain. Like dialing in a skimmer with 5 dials hahaha. I'm sure it will sort itself out, after I fix the intake of air, because when that happens the pump runs on it's own puddle of water, and doesn't pull from the system, so doesn't push back into it either, and nothing moves. I keep bleeding out air from the intake as I designed a fill hole, but more air keeps getting sucked in. Vicious cycle. Hopefully gluing the intake will solve that bit. I'll test it tonight.

No regrets on the pump at all, it's adjustable, so I can start at the lowest setting for the testing as I have been doing, and ramp it up, and dial in each valve as needed.

OMG my husband said the same thing! He and my friend tried to hire the guys at Dural Irrigation to put it all together for me. All I heard last night was, can't you have professionals do this. . I'm like . .gee, I don't got many professional reefers in my area of Sydney I'm close buddies with

It is with a tinge of sadness to say my whole project is more of a let down then originally planned. It's a great concept! It should have in theory worked.

I am grateful for two things, (1) a few weeks ago I purchased a few pond pumps to replace pumps. One for mixing salt, one for doing my WCs, and one for my main cube's chiller. (2) I designed the manifold to be threaded, not glued in case of adjustments.

I am pretty sad this didn't work out as planned, and I can't entirely point my finger at one issue alone. The pump at 10k isn't strong enough to have all the water redirected in so many directions, there is very minor leaks, which are allowing air in as the water drips out, as this tiny amount of air gets in, it gets pushed through the system, and eventually will build up, and break the suction of the pump causing the pump to sort of push water up, water falls back down, and it 'plays' with it's own water which doesn't actually get pumped anywhere because new water can't come down. This would be avoided if the tank was drilled, and it does have a hole that has previously been drilled, and filled, but I don't want to use it. (This would allow the water to gravity feed the pump.) It could also be avoided if I was able to fix the leaks better then I have been able, however as the pump has so far only been able to be ramped up to about 3/4 of it's power due to the air intake breaking the suction.

It's not a complete loss, as I have used another pump in the 'return' section for the chiller, so now that the weather has cooled off. . .the chiller is online and working fine. I have decided to dedicate the 10k pump to the closed loop as I have already designed all the plumbing for it. Which means I'll be removing the manifold entirely and saving it in case needed in the future. All the fittings, and valves are removable/reusable.

Best part of last night, nothing is leaking.

I also added a nice happy fat rabbitfish because the algae was out of control. He has very happily gone THROUGH it. I won't hesitate to suggest it to anyone else with macro algae issues in the display. I may even send him to my main cube for a visit to some of it I can't pull out by hand. The tank is adjusting to having the biopellets offline, as it has been a few weeks without. The clam is growing like a weed, and after testing a few times for calc, and alk between water changes, it is definitely time to add this tank it's own doser, which as soon as kangaroos stop hitting us and we repair the car, I'm allowed to get. Other then that the only immediate change I'll be making is to change the LED to MH for the cool months to avoid using heaters on the tanks.

Sorry there haven't been many updates. I started a new job and things got hecktic. I upgraded the biopellet reactor which is cranking now. I added a rabbit fish to tackle the algae and it's all gone. Phosphates are down to .07 which is more then fine for the corals in that tank they're mostly zoas with a few random bits.

I had a few ato floods from sensors not working, so I top off manually for now. I'll take some photos to show tonight.